time to move (personal update)

Note: This is a purely personal post. Nothing web, biz, tech here. Not on purpose at least. Feel free to ignore.

It’s time to move again. Nothing new so far: Ever since leaving the small town I grew up in (1999, so that’s 12 years ago) I moved, as far as I can tell and depending on how you count (don’t ask) about 7 times (most of these within Berlin); this upcoming move will be #8. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Far from it, in fact, it has always been my free choice to explore a new ‘hood or live with some new people. I’m just moving within Berlin, and just a few blocks, too. Plus, this time it’s a bit of a special move on a personal level that I’m very much looking forward to, but that’s another story.

While the logistics get better, easier, more efficient with both growing experience and resources, there’s some stuff you just can’t change. Going through all your stuff, deciding piece by piece what to keep and what to toss. (I’ve been trying to take a hint from Bruce Sterling there, tossing everything I don’t really want to keep and altogether trying to buy less, but better stuff.) Out go stacks of books, dust collectors, conference badges, a mysterious fake shrinking head, clothes, magazines, what have you. Also out go a scarily large heap of electronics ranging from 3 (!) ancient cell phones, a Palm Pilot, chargers, routers (with Australian power plugs), cables, as well as most of my trusty old hifi I bought, piece by piece, in my teens. (Tape deck! CD player! Mini disc! Radio!) In other words, it’s a good time to shed the stuff that ends up owning you without giving you anything.

Then there’s the other stuff, the stuff you end up flipping through half by accident, half for procrastination. Photos, tokens of memory, paperwork of times gone by. All the stuff that’s surfaced only on special occasions. Nothing dramatic necessarily, just stuff you usually put in a drawer, out of sight, and it usually just stays there. This is where time slows down. Where it gets a tad more emotional, reflective, personal.

So that’s where my mind is in the evenings this week and next: Sorting out old stuff, pre-sorting the new, and getting ready to move. Maybe I’ll post some before-and-after photos of the physical manifestations of all of this (read: the renovations), too.